Hot-desking is for adults only

There is a lot of energy and fun in the offices of iSelect, says its chief, Matt McCann. Photo: Luis Ascui

David Ramli and Lucille Keen

Slide into work... Matt McCann.

Office trends such as clear desk policies, hot-desking or activity-based working are only effective if staff are treated like adults, say employers.

“If you believe that employees need to be micro-managed in order to do what is required then I would suggest activity-based working is not going to fit with the culture of that style of organisation,” said Microsoft human resources director Rose Clements.

Activity-based working, or ABW, means staff don’t have a permanent desk, and clear out their desks at the end of every day in a bid to boost productivity while slashing costs.

Ms Clements said 1000 staff have adopted activity-based working since March 2011, and Colliers International says more than 33 per cent of employers are using or considering such a switch.

“First and foremost we believe we employ adults and that we don’t need to tell people specifically what they can and can’t do,” Ms Clements said.

“If someone was planning to sit on a couch and sip on a cup of soup or eat a sandwich that’s entirely their prerogative.”

Ms Clements said every staffer from the general manager down was using the open workspace policy and rotating spaces as needed, resulting in more loyalty, productivity and staff happiness.

“People’s engagement, passion and ideas are all being brought to the work that they do,” she said. “They’re loyal and strong advocates for the organisation they work for because they feel trusted, empowered and are accountable for their own successes.”

The sentiments were echoed by Jones Lang LaSalle head of corporate consulting Rajiv Nagrath, who oversaw a conversion to flexible work spaces. “My belief is that if you treat people like adults they’ll behave like adults,” he said. “We wrote a whole series of protocols and then just broke it down to simple messages like ‘keep the place clean’.

“Going to an ABW and then installing 20,000 rules is no better than the old assigned desk model.”

He said changing attitudes to work and improving technology was vital to the new way of working. “If you have people on desktop computers it’s really pointless to try and do ABWs,” he said. “It’s not about cost-cutting because sometimes going across will cost you a little more.”

At iSelect, staff move desks every couple of months so they can meet new people.

They also have table-tennis tables, massage chairs, a sleep pod, running track, spin cycle studio and even a slide, landing in a ball pit.

iSelect chief Matt McCann said the office, in Melbourne’s south-east, took more than 12 months to design.

He said the productivity and staff satisfaction outweighed the initial cost of the facilities. “The energy and fun permeates,” he said.

“We’ve had the busiest June on record and we wouldn’t have the ability to react to any issues if we didn’t create the environment we have, which has really opened up communication between staff in all departments.”

Mr McCann said individual work spaces worked better for staff so they felt comfortable and able to personalise it rather than a hot seat situation.